EAGER: Stimulating innovation in cross-disciplinary women studies research through cyber-enabled data management and informatics research systems.

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

This EAGER project is exploring overlooked areas with regard to underrepresented groups, especially women: the interdisciplinary cyber-education of women and the unique contributions of women to our cyberinfrastructure. The team is beginning to address these important issue in the context of the following long term goal: Train university faculty and students at all levels in the use of cyber-based tools in American Studies, History, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Information/Library science, and Engineering to use of cyber-based tools (e.g., shared databases, internet portals, monitoring devices, visualization, data collection and analysis tools) to gather, depict, compare and/or reuse data to create a cyberinfrastructure-supported scientific and digital humanities community. This project aims to: Design a new integrative research and learning program to prepare students in the use of cyberinfrastructure capabilities such as simulation, modelling, and data visualization. Project Goal: The team of trans-disciplinary faculty with their newly acquired cyber-enabled research skills will develop and teach a cross-listed course in "Women, Water, and Work", including field work at the high performance computing center (CAR-C), in the Earth Data Analysis Center (EDAC), and in Native American and acequia-based Hispanic water systems. Devise new programs to train and/or retool digital librarians in the development, deployment, and support of cyberinfrastructure tools and services. The University Libraries (UL) hired two PhD qualified Information Scientists to arrive in August 2010 with skills in geospacial data management, data curation, bio-informatics, and information science to develop skills in both library and other faculty. Increase the exposure of undergraduate student populations that are not traditional users of cyberinfrastructure simulation, modeling and data visualization tools, especially those from the humanities and social sciences or from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. A course will be developed and taught by female faculty from the various women studies programs at UNM and will focus on water and women's work issues in New Mexico's Tribal, Pueblo, and Hispanic communities. Mentor teams of faculty and students across disciplines, institutions, and cultures, to improve the effectiveness of cyberinfrastructure-enabled collaboratories addressing a research problem, question, task, etc. Mentoring and training in new skills and attitudes are at the root of the proposal, especially should it be funded in the future as a CI-TEAM dissemination and/or diffusion project. The concept will utilize the emerging "e-Research Center (eRC)" in the science and engineering library (collaborative research spaces, a visualization lab, a "store-front" for the high performance computing center, a data wall, and the like) to engage students and faculty in planned and serendipitous ways. Use existing and emerging initiatives at the university to learn how to use, advance, and create cyberinfrastructure tools and services (e.g. open source software development, large scale database design and administration, Internet portals, multi-core programming, modeling and simulation tools). For example, a committee established by the VP for Research and chaired by PI van Reenen, the "Research Collaboration Enhancement Committee", is developing a group of early adopters and a series of seminars to grow the vision and practices of cyber-enabled, data-rich, trans-disciplinary collaboration. The project takes a critical look at the potential benefits of interaction and collaboration between the humanities and the sciences based on applying informatics skills and resources. Long-term outcomes, especially in the dissemination and diffusion phases, are to include: - More cyber-enabled research/informatics skills and applications in Women Studies research - Increased contributions of women in promoting research creativity - Increased recognition of women?s contributions to research creativity - Increased use of cyber-enabled and data-rich research systems Other goals for the project include: - Developing a multidisciplinary collaborative teaching and research team - Mapping strengths in Women Studies and past collaborations - Creating a course based on training the instructional team in Informatics Skills - Publishing and distributing findings to campus-wide stakeholders